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stayfree - Stay F---! | 10 November

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  • From: Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>
  • To: stayfree AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Stay F---! | 10 November
  • Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 00:04:59 -0500

Posted at:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/index.html

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If you are a paid subscriber and are getting this twice, email stay.free AT verizon.net and I'll make things right.

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I'm finally getting around to adding material from Issue #22 to the website. We begin with "World View," our random newsbytes section:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/22/worldview.html

(Sorry, no photos on the site. I'm lazy.)


WORLD VIEW: MARKETING NEWS AND OTHER SICK STUFF

Patients undergoing cardiac surgery can now look forward to hearing new age music and calming voices while under the knife. Doctors at prominent hospitals are increasingly recommending the use of guided imagery tapes, which are played through earphones while patients are under anesthesia. A calm female voice beckons patients to "feel new strength flowing through you, through arteries that are wider and more open . . . than before."

To assure patients that their doctors are reliable, the voice coos that medical devices "will be removed by wise and sure hands at just the right time, when your body is ready, no sooner, no later." While there is no real evidence yet that the tapes have any effect, they are marketed as a way of improving patients' recovery. Audio samples of these tapes can be found on the Ohio-based Health Journeys website, including affirmations for other conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, depression, and menopause. (Wall Street Journal, 2/10/04)

* * * *

The photo developing departments at several national chain stores routinely censor customer orders. A Walgreen's in Ohio, for example, removed a photo of a shirtless man wearing a nipple ring from customer Calvin Johnson's roll--and threw away the negatives.

An assistant manager told Johnson that film developers are under no obligation to print photos they deem offensive, "If someone doesn't approve of the subject matter," he said, "each employee has the right [to discard photos] as they see it."

CVS, Eckerds, and Rite-Aid have similar policies. Wal-Mart's policy is even more sweeping: if employees come across any photographs containing nudity of any kind--kids in a bathtub, for instance--they are required to call the police. (Clevescene.com, 4/14/04)

MORE WORLD VIEW STORIES AT:
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/22/worldview.html


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Meanwhile, outside the Stay F---! web universe, there's:


HOW TO THINK ABOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
By Malcolm Gladwell
http://newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?041025crat_atlarge

Let me preface this by saying that I think Malcolm Gladwell (http://gladwell.com) is a bit of a charlatan. His modus operandi is to put forth a counterintuitive argument, then cleverly select points that advance his thesis while ignoring and obscuring those that don't. Still, he raises a good point here: one reason prescription drugs costs are skyrocketing in America is because Americans are taking a lot more drugs. The rest of his argument is, however, pure hokum.

"The emphasis of the prescription-drug debate is all wrong," Gladwell writes. "We've been focused on the drug manufacturers. But decisions about prevalence, therapeutic mix, and intensity aren't made by the producers of drugs. They're made by the consumers of drugs."

See, friends, it's not the drug company's fault that your colitis medication is almost $600, it's YOURS. What's especially weird is that Gladwell himself acknowledges the power of deceptive marketing and patent-law abuses--practices that the average consumer is, for all practical purposes, helpless against. But in Gladwell's fantasy world, doctors, health insurers, and consumers should take responsibility for drug company shenanigans. In making his case, Gladwell conveniently ignores the fact that drug companies have done everything they can to prevent studies comparing competing drugs to one another, and to prevent the reporting of negative data from clinical trials.

How come, when I'm prescribed a drug, there is no way for me to report the drug's effectiveness: did it help? did it hurt? If there were some reliable, independent resource that collected this data--a sort of "Consumer Reports" for pharmaceuticals--then maybe patients would have a tool to balance corporations' marketing muscle. (Such a resource would also help in filling out the shortcomings of clinical trials.) But with nothing of a kind, and with only flashy--and often misleading--advertisements to fill the gap, neither the little old lady in Omaha nor the hyperinformed New York journalist has much to go on.


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NEWSDESK.ORG
Serious, noncommercial, online journalism.
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DIEBOLD & ELECTRONIC VOTING

Today I got bored with myself and posted a few links about electronic voting up at Deebold.com (a domain I registered a while back). One noteworthy item is a video excerpt of MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," which does a hard-hitting roundup of voting inaccuracies in last week's election. Several counties in Florida and Ohio, for example, had more votes than voters! See http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/diebold/ (aka deebold.com)

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"MARRY AN AMERICAN"

In the wake of the Presidential election, our friends in Canada have stepped in to lend a hand by offering "desperate" single Americans a pathway to freedom:
http://www.marryanamerican.ca/

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TIRED JAPANESE BUSINESSMEN

Neato photo archive of overworked Japnese business men sleeping (or passed out) on trains, sidewalks, and even staircases:
http://masamania.com/archives/2004/09/japanese_busine.html
(via BoingBoing.net)

that's all for now,
carrie




  • Stay F---! | 10 November, Carrie McLaren, 11/10/2004

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